The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1887-03-26
FAMILY FINANCES.
A Particular fu vvhfcfn EHauy
Otherwise Good Husbands
Err

Rev. y. H. Palmer, in Advance.
There are many marriages which arc
true unions Of "twaiu in one flesh" in
everything except money matters.
There is the common home, the COM
mon name, the common interest in all
other affairs Of daily life, but there is
not common pockct-book. The hus-
band earns the money. The wife is a
pauper; unless she bas something
which stands in her own name, which
has come to her, by Inheritance or
otherwise, she Is regarded as depend
ent on her husband What she has
he 'gives" her. She is pensioner on
his bounty. Often his thoughtless
ness, or something worse, makes il
necessary for her to become a beggar.
She is obliged to explain and Justify
her request for the means to supply
he. own and the children's daily needs.
While as for little comforts and luxu-
ries she does without them rather than
incur the disagreeable discussion of
their necessity, if she asks her hus-
band for the money which they would
cost. The happiness Of many home
has been shipwrecked on this rock.
And there is many another in which
the wife is really loved by the husband,
who never suspects that he is not fair
and even generous in all his financial
relations to his family, but in which
there would be a new and deeper hap
piness, and more complete union, IT
the same oneness which is recognized
in all other matters were extended to
the family finances, and the wife were
allowed to feel that the money is hers
as truly and in the same sense as it
is his.
That this latter is the true theory
of the financial relation of husband
and wife we fully believe; and that it
is not simply theoretical but also prac-
tical and practicable, we know from
some refreshing examples that have
fallen under our observation. Inthese
cases the husband generally and nat
urally has the management of the
money that is to be invested, as he is
out IN the business world, and more
familiar with the markets and with
men, than the wife. But she is al
ways consulted. She shares with him
in interest and in knowledge of every
financial operation, and is made to feel
that it is her money that is being in
vested as well as his !; or, rather, that
the interest is neither hers no his, but
theirs. And for all household expen-
ses there is common fund, kept al
ways in given place and drawn from
at will by the wife for her own needs
and those of the family. She keeps
her own cash account, which the hus-
band Is at liberty to examine at any
time, as she is at liberty to examine
his. The twain are one, and whatever
is earned by either is the property of
both. 1t is always so regarded in
thought, word and deed.
The advantages of this plan are
manifold. First, it enhances the unity,
and so the sacredness of the marriage
relation. The safety of the State and
of the very race is in the keeping of
those who make the homes of the
land. And true home can only ex-
ist where there is unity of interest.
ANY thing that breaks into this unity
is dangerous. The husband and wife
are not rival establishments, with sep
arate business interests; they are not
even different members of common
commercial firm. They are one. Mar
riage is not copartnership. II is a
union. 1t is the fusion of two sepa-
rate and partial individualities into
one perfect organism. That organism
has parts or members. But if Zone
member suffer, all the members suffer
with it, or if one member be honored,
all the members rejoice with it." When
this view of marriage becomes COM
mon, and is carried out in all the
details of daily life, the divorce courts
will be empty, and society will be re-
lieved of some of its greatest dangers.